One Friend
by One Lucky Unicorn
Summary: "No creature in the Seeonee Hills cared for Kaa." Just how true is that statement? Uses a mixture of Jungle Cubs, the animated Disney film (not the sequel), and a wee bit of Kipling canon.


**One Friend **

It was four 'o clock in the afternoon, and Kaa the python had eaten not too long ago, and now was sleeping off his meal on a little hill covered in rocks and boulders. All seventeen feet of his long brown and dark green-mottled body was looped in great coils, one on top of the other, as he rested on top of a broad rock. In this particular section of the jungle, there was a large gap in the canopy overhead, allowing the sun's light to reach the ground. As a result, the rock was nicely warmed by the time Kaa had discovered it, making it the perfect place for a reptile to rest.

Kaa relished his solitude. Being alone did not bother him. It was an understatement to say that not many would willingly seek him out. No creature in the Seeonee Hills cared for Kaa, and he was fine with that. Oh, he had had friends once upon a time, but that was seasons ago, and things had changed as nature had taken its course. Now, most animals gave him a wide berth, not wanting to end up as a meal. Kaa was an opportunistic predator after all, and to him, many creatures were potential meals. Some incorrectly believed that he and Shere Kahn were friends, but Kaa strongly disliked the tiger. He'd never really quite liked him. He'd robbed Kaa of his prey on more than a couple of occasions, including that Man-Cub, and, if Kaa was being honest with himself, he was afraid of him. In a fight, Shere Kahn could defeat him rather handily. But the dreaded big cat hadn't been seen in the area for quite some time now - not after the Man-Cub had sent him running using the power of the strange Red Flower. Rumor had it that Shere Kahn gone lame from his injuries. Kaa had little sympathy for him.

Something rustled in the high green grass nearby. One yellow eye cracked open to focus on the spot. The noise abruptly ceased, so Kaa closed his eyes once more. Perhaps it was just the wind. But the rustling began again. It couldn't be the wind. Kaa became somewhat uneasy, but then quickly realized that whatever it was, it wasn't large, so he dismissed the idea of it being Shere Kahn creeping through the grass.

Sighing in annoyance, he called out, "Whoever's in there, I can hear you. And I'm _hungry_." Well, he wasn't really, but the other creature didn't know that.

Amused chuckling followed Kaa's announcement, and a small four-footed figure stepped from out of the grass to face Kaa. It was a young adult mongoose, ash-gray with lighter-colored fur on his face and underparts.

Blinking in surprise, Kaa raised his head to regard the mongoose before recognition finally dawned on him. "Mungo?" He was bigger than Kaa remembered, being fully grown now, but it was indeed Mungo. As a young snake, Kaa had come upon Mungo by chance after his mother had left him to fend for himself. Kaa's initial intentions had been to eat him, but the little mongoose had won him over, and they'd struck up a friendship. Mungo was the one animal who Kaa considered his true friend. They had mutual respect for one another.

Kaa did something that most other animal would've found surprising and even peculiar. He smiled - not a smile that was sinister or suggested he knew something that you didn't, but a genuinely happy smile. "You've really grown!"

"I could say the same for you." Mungo laughed, bouncing up to Kaa. His voice had lost his old childish tone, having become a little deeper, though not nearly enough to even be considered bass or the like.

"Where you have been? I haven't seen you around in seasons! I thought-" Kaa stopped. The last time he'd seen the slightly younger Mungo was when he was about a year old. He had just simply stopped seeing him around. He couldn't really say anything to Baloo, Bagheera, and the others about Mungo's disappearance because he and Mungo had previously chosen to keep their friendship a secret. A mongoose and a python being friends was something that was deemed unnatural (very ironic that the animal who'd first told Kaa this, Bagheera, was a leopard who had been friends with an elephant, a bear, a tiger, and an orangutan and thought nothing of that, Kaa thought, feeling cross). And by that time, their little group had started drifting apart. Kaa had often wondered if Shere Kahn had done something to him – he hadn't made a secret of his desire to eat Mungo when they'd first met. But Shere Khan had never said anything about Mungo after that day, surprisingly enough, leaving Kaa to imagine all sorts of horrible fates that could have befallen his friend. Gradually, his worries had stopped dominating his thoughts, though his memories of Mungo had never completely left.

That cheerful smile left Mungo's muzzle and eyes, and his body language changed, becoming tense. "It was Shere Kahn. I was out foraging for food when I saw him. I climbed a tree hoping he wouldn't notice me – not that I was scared, of course. I just didn't feel like dealing with that stripy fleabag." Mungo's fur bristled, though whether this was anger directed at the tiger or because he didn't like inadvertently implying that he was scared of Kahn Kaa couldn't tell. "Well, he saw me and came right up to my tree. He couldn't get to where I was because the branches were too thin to support him, so he started talking to me. He said he hadn't forgotten how I'd bitten him, and knew that you and I were still friends because he'd been watching us. He said I had a choice - leave, or he'd see to it that you wound up in an accident, and it'd be entirely my fault. And if I tried to warn you, then he'd hurt both of us."

Kaa was at a loss for words. Of course he understood the implication behind the veiled threat Shere Kahn had given Mungo about seeing to it that he was in an accident. As prideful as Shere Kahn was, even back then, there was no way he would take what Mungo had done to him laying down.

Mungo continued: "Then he slunk off, smirking. I thought about what he said, and knew I had to go. I didn't want to put you in danger. Back then, you were the only animal I really knew here, and if you got hurt because of me, I don't think I'd be able to handle it. So I left to find a new jungle. I heard he was gone, so I thought I'd come back and see if it was true."

"He hasn't shown his face around here in days, not after what the Man-Cub did to him." Delightedly, Kaa proceeded to tell him what had happened to Shere Kahn. He himself had picked up the news secondhand only when he'd been concealed up in a tree and overheard a pair of porcupines discussing it one day. He actually found himself feeling a strange sense of gratitude to Mowgli for chasing Shere Kahn off. No one else in the jungle would've been able to do so, and everyone still would've been living in fear of him.

Mungo was spellbound by his story, his bright eyes wide with awe. "A _Man-Cub_ did that to a tiger? I guess they're tougher then I thought."

"Yes, they are," Kaa grudgingly admitted. "And quite troublesome as well." He proffered his tail to Mungo, who scampered up to perch atop his big blunt-nosed head.

"Hey, Kaa?"

"Hmm?" Something in Mungo's tone made Kaa focus on him.

"Thanks for not being mad at me. I was really worried that you hated me because I left without saying a word."

"I was more worried that something awful had happened to you. You were so small then. You could've been eaten, or fallen into a river, or caught in a Man-Trap -"

"Okay, I get it." Mungo chuckled. "But I wasn't _that_ little you know."

Kaa just grinned in turn.

Anyone who happened to be walking through that part of the Seeonee Hills that afternoon would've come upon a strange scene: a python coiled *on the rock, and a mongoose lying snugly on him the way a cat curls up on the lap of its owner, both sleeping peacefully.

**The End**

**Author's notes:** Mungo is a one-shot character from a _Jungle Cubs_ episode called "Mondo Mungo" that I will link to on my blog for those interested in seeing it. I'm not sure if Kaa is too 'soft' in here or what, so let me know what you think!


End file.
